The Last Signal

                      A Memory of William Barnes

  Silently I footed by an uphill road
  That led from my abode to a spot yew-boughed; 
Yellowly the sun sloped low down to westward, 
              And dark was the east with cloud.

  Then, amid the shadow of that livid sad east, 
  Where the light was least, and a gate stood wide, 
Something flashed the fire of the sun that was facing it, 
              Like a brief blaze on that side.

  Looking hard and harder I knew what it meant—
  The sudden shine sent from the livid east scene; 
It meant the west mirrored by the coffin of my friend there, 
              Turning to the road from his green,

  To take his last journey forth-he who in his prime 
  Trudged so many a time from that gate athwart the land! 
Thus a farewell to me he signalled on his grave-way,
              As with a wave of his hand.

    WINTERBORNE CAME PATH.